Max Verstappen: F1 in Istanbul was five seconds too slow

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Max Verstappen sat on Friday in the first two training sessions of Formula 1 in the Turkey ( F1 2020 dwell in the ticker! ) to the top of the field. With a lap time of 1: 28. 330 minutes battle er the fastest pilot on the day of training, the competition was four tenths of a second short of the Purple Bull driver. Overall, however, the field on the slippery road remained well below expectations.

“It can’t get any worse,” admits Verstappen. In the first free coaching in particular, the pilots struggled and reported over the pit radio that they were driving “as if on ice”. The reason for the slide : The track operators have had the slope re-paved.

They also washed the new asphalt before the coaching to get the oily bitumen out of the asphalt. As a result, the drivers hardly had any grip in the second coaching either. “That was a bit of a shame. But in general the trace went pretty well for us, the car worked well.”

Verstappen suggests: Change to spikes!

The lap times were nevertheless “miles away” from the expected calculations . In the year 620 Purple Bull driver Sebastian Vettel drove in 1: 25. 049 Minutes on the Pole Quandary.

The 2020 he cars with the higher power and more downforce in the qualifying trim should be around four seconds faster, Mercedes calculated out. “I think we were still five seconds slower than we should have been,” added Verstappen. It was much worse than in Portimao.

“We then had to adjust to it. Hopefully it won’t rain, because then it will continue to be very slippery.” Postscript: “Maybe we’ll have to switch to spikes then,” jokes Verstappen. In any case, he informs the route managers that they should not wash the asphalt again.

The asphalt is also an issue in the drivers’ meeting on Friday evening. Because even the soft tires didn’t make the expected difference. “We got a little faster from hard to soft tires, but it did simply the grip on the asphalt. “

If one were to use even softer tires, these would be” grained to death “. So that is not the solution, he believes Purple Bull driver. He assumes that the track will continue to develop. And that Mercedes will again set the tone on Saturday.

This assessment comes close Team boss Christian Horner said: “I’m sure that you will be there. You were on pole at every single Big Prix this year. “However, the Briton hopes that the unexpected will happen due to the unusual conditions.

Albon: Like in a “drift car”

“With this low grip on the surface something like the one with the McLaren could happen again on the first lap in Portimao. I wouldn’t rule that out, because it’s harder to overtake here. “The key factor he makes is tire selection and tire removal Start of the weekend. “That also means that our preparation for this weekend wasn’t too bad. We also reacted well to the conditions, right from the first coaching. Hopefully we can be competitive in qualifying and then in the race you never know, turn out to be as soon as happens. “

Team-mate Alexander Albon was able to stand up in practice partly showing at the top, in the end he was fifth in the overall ranking – he was missing a second on Verstappen. “That was a really strange battle today, I didn’t have one normal feeling. It was a bit like being in a drift car. “

He had to leave his comfort zone to bring the tires into the work window and was “Slipped everywhere”. That was a ride on the razor blade, after all, there is always the risk of flight. Even the soft tire did not help much, Albon admits.

The Thai asks himself how it will behave in qualifying: “Maybe we will all drive out on the softs, fill in as much fuel as possible and do a long run.” This would at least warm up the tires better.

In addition, the weather component could play a role. If it should actually rain, that would be “bad cht “. Albon believes that would put everyone in trouble. “I’m sure that Bernd [Mayländer] will drive a few laps to make us feel like us. He will probably be faster than us,” assumes Albon with a smile.